Thanks Jason, this gets me most of the way to where I need. Let me see
if I understand this correctly:
* I create two <CustomAction> elements in my WiX project, one for the
immediate custom action, one for the deferred.
* Then, I schedule the immediate custom action using a <Custom> element
in my WiX project under the <InstallExecuteSequence> element.
* In my C# code for the immediate custom action, I place a
session.DoAction() call using the name of my deferred CA in the Id
attribute of my <Custom> element.
I've tried this with WiX 3.0.4214 and when I attempt to install the
resulting .msi, I get an error 2721 ("Custom Action foo not found in the
binary table stream") when the installer attempts to schedule the
deferred action. Looking in orca, everything looks right in the
CustomAction table, but I'm clearly missing something simple here.
--Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jason
Ginchereau
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 9:50 AM
To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.
Subject: Re: [WiX-users] DTF custom action questions
1. In your <InstallExecuteSequence>, you could schedule your CA relative
to the WixSqlExtension CA like this:
<Custom Action="MySqlCA" After="InstallSqlData" ...
You'll need to do the work in a deferred CA, because the WixSqlExtension
CAs do their work in the deferred phase. But it is a common pattern to
invoke (schedule) a deferred CA directly from an immediate CA, so in
that case you only need to author the immediate CA scheduling in WiX.
2. From an immediate CA, you can read the data from the Binary table
into either a Stream or a file: open a View on the Binary table, execute
the View, fetch the Record, and then call one of the Record.GetStream()
overloads. Then you'll need to pass this data to a deferred CA because
an immediate CA should not modify system state and a deferred CA cannot
read the MSI database. (And also because it needs to be after the
InstallSqlData CA as mentioned above.) To pass that data, fill a
CustomActionData object with the data and invoke the deferred CA with
session.DoAction(deferredActionName, actionData). Then from within the
deferred CA you can access that data as the session.CustomActionData
property. Finally, don't forget about rollback and uninstall!
3. A DTF CA DLL is authored in WiX exactly like an unmanaged CA DLL. You
need a <Binary> element for the DLL, a <CustomAction> element for each
CA entrypoint, and a <Custom Action=...> to sequence each call in
<InstallExecuteSequence>. When it comes to the MSI/WiX authoring, there
are no additional elements you need to worry about just because the CA
is managed or using DTF (other than perhaps a LaunchCondition to verify
.NET is available).
Hope this helps.
-Jason-
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Evans, Jim
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 4:24 AM
To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.
Subject: [WiX-users] DTF custom action questions
My installation creates and then interacts with a SQL Server database.
Up until now, I've been able to do everything I need to do from WiX
using the standard extensions, but now I'm facing a problem for which I
need a custom action.
I have to import some data into my database, but I need to modify it
based on information gathered during the installation. Here are my
questions:
1. How can I properly schedule my custom action to ensure it runs
after my other SqlScripts and SqlStrings have been run?
2. How can I use data files (stored in the MSI with the <Binary>
element*) in my custom action? I don't want to actually install them on
the user's machine, just use them during the installation.
3. I'm having a hard time getting my head around how to correctly
author and deploy a DTF custom action. Using Votive, I'm able to build
the CA assemblies properly, but what do I need to add in my WiX project
to make sure all of the elements are available to execute the custom
action? DTF.chm has a good enough sample of C# code that I can follow
the CA method creation, but can somebody point me to a sample fragment
that includes all of the elements necessary to get a DTF CA to run?
* I'm not wedded to using them as Binary streams in the MSI; if somebody
has a better suggestion, please feel free to chime in.
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